Salvation: DISTRACTED: The Clarity of the Cross

Introduction

Let me begin with a discipleship question: how will you follow Jesus in repentance and spiritual renewal this week?

Main Points

In this lesson shaped by Calvary Boise's teaching on DISTRACTED: The Clarity of the Cross, Christ invites us to receive truth with humility, practice repentance, and walk in faithful obedience.

Grace and Justification

please turn to first Corinthians in chapter one first Corinthians in chapter one and we are looking at one of the major themes of this letter that the Apostle Paul is writing to a church in Corinth which is the focus of the church we've called the theme distracted because we live in a culture both in the world and in the church that can be so easily distracted from the main thing and as we wrap up the first week of school for the college students among us or the those who are back into the flow and the rhythm of the school the public school systems in Boise you know how easy it is to get off track as the week 1 motivation to have an awesome year ahead of you and take your syllabus and convert it into your calendar was challenged by all of the other things that a college student could be doing parents you know the distracted culture and temptation to take your eyes off what you should be doing as parents and to put him on something else one of the challenges of our world is how to be engaged parents and not replace our parenting with some television or a screen and be distracted by other things and so it goes for the marriage is how easy it is to go about all of the other things and lose focus of each other and how much more is it true oftentimes in our pursuit of God and we find that being true in the way that it unfolds to manifest itself in the ways that we sometimes lose our focus is when we belong to a community of believers sometimes the community of God that is supposed to be focused on him can look at other things and start debating and wondering and starting to argue over the styles and the substance of the community rather than the focus of the community and really this is serving as a reminder of what we looked at last week the Apostle Paul is writing a letter to a church in Corinth that he helped plant he was the initial missionary that landed in this city he spent about a year and a half getting the church going and calling people to Christ and then encouraging them raising up new leaders he moves and he has now gotten word that the church is disputing about all of these different things this should not be surprising it happened in the very first century of the church and it has essentially happened throughout church history wherever the Community of God gathers the diversity of all of our backgrounds and all of our sin preferences and puts them together to be united by Christ there will all be challenges and those challenges sometimes create a fog in the church or a fog in the community of what it is we're actually supposed to be focused on today we will look at part two of the answer last week we looked at verse 17 where Paul said if we put anything before the cross of Christ we've lost the power of our community if we put preachers or philosophies or speakers or style as the thing that we focus on Paul says in verse 17 you've made the cross of Christ of no effect and now we will continue to find our answer in a message that I'm calling the clarity of the cross look what he says in verse 18 for the message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God what Paul did last week and what he's going to do as we look again in the this portion of Scripture is to say in all of the challenges that may come up as your community grows in ability to live together in pursuit of God there is a focus and that focus is the message of the cross the cross brings clarity and it is important that we find ourselves fixed on that as our focus when we find ourselves in the fog or in the wavering waters that sometimes life and spirituality feels like it's true of our spirituality to have a fixed point for us to focus our hearts and minds on and we get that lesson as it is true of our own bodies to find something physical to fix your pursuit on I learned this lesson probably the best way when I was a deckhand on a yacht I don't know if many of you who have heard what I was doing before I was a pastor but I came from the Caribbean back to Boise after spending a short season of my life as a deckhand now to get that position I went to Southern Florida knowing that from my research the yachts often left southern Florida on the way to the Caribbean and I just started looking for a yacht that I could join the crew of and eventually I found the captain of the eventual crew that I would join and had to convince him that I would be a good fit for the team which was a bit of a challenge for someone who grew up in landlocked Idaho my experience on the open water in the ocean sailing and exploring is very limited as you may guess as someone who grew up here my experience was very rarely spending time at the lake in McCall or visiting my grandparents and yet I was able to turn this and convince the captain that had all the experience necessary to go from the southern point of Florida aims of the Caribbean ocean and be a contributing member of his team and for about a month I just swab the deck and polished the rails and got everything ready and then as we took our maiden voyage it took me about ten minutes before my true colors showed my true colors were a sickly shade of green it's totally sick within the first 10 minutes of actually being on the open water now this is a version of something needing to change because my life has all of a sudden become unbalanced and in my novice experience I did everything wrong I tried to just close my eyes and bear it I go into the bathroom and just try to recover without anyone noticing wiping the sweat off my brow come drink water get fresh air and nothing was helping and in the captain's experience he knew the only thing that would actually help me was to take me to the top of the yacht get me into the fresh air and find something fixed on the horizon for my eyes to look at that is what my physical body needed I needed a fixed point to stare at so that in all the imbalance of the movement of the sea my body would finally find the recovery that it needed through that fixed point on the horizon and that's true of your body wherever you go you need a fixed destination to get there otherwise you'll get as it is seasick you find that in the car or on the open water or in your life when you lose your focus in your movement it's true of your body and it's true of your soul the this is the clarity that comes to us in this message is to say when you start to feel the uneasiness in your spirit when you feel tension building within your community when you feel the relationship and the challenges that come when you take only two sinners and put them together to fight for unity what has to happen when you become imbalanced as you find your fixed point of focus and that is the cross for the believer that's why the message of the Cross is the answer that Paul will give in all of the to his letter before he gets into the weeds of actually covering the answers for their division he says first we need our fixed point of focus and the cross will bring clarity to anyone who actually gazes on it with the eyes to see what God is inviting them to experience through the cross and in this passage of Scripture I have summed up what clarity we find in the cross this morning in three ways the cross will bring clarity to the message of your life what you live for what you truly believe in and stand for not by what you say but what people say about you what is the message of your life it's true that you need to find that and it's true the community of believers gathered together has a focused message the cross brings clarity to that we also find clarity for the conditions that we live in have you ever noticed that sometimes the tension comes because times they are so uncertain and your own plans can come into question and your own ideas of what is right or what you should be doing or what the most important things can be come into question what is the condition the cross brings clarity to that and finally and maybe the most important aspect of clarity that comes for the cross that is refreshing and good news for us to hear again and it is the invitation that will change the rest of your eternity for some of you and that is the cross brings clarity to your relationship with God the God who made you to know him and experience him and be in fellowship and relationship with him the clarity for how all of that works and how you can approach him and receive him is found in the cross and so first we start with our message it says in verse 18 for the message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing this is just one part in all of the ways that Paul will bring the focus of this church back on to the main thing this is one reminder that will come up over and over and over again the fixed point of focus for the believing community is the message of the Cross last week we looked at this played out when he says you can't replace Jesus with another teacher otherwise you've lost the message which is the cross he goes on in chapter 2 to say this verse 1 and I brethren when I came to you did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God he said my message was not fat the power of my message was not found in my words and it wasn't found in the wisdom that I was letting you in on as I proclaimed it what was the message he said I determined to know not know anything about you except Jesus Christ and him crucified in other words Paul says when I came to you when I first visited this city all I wanted to know about you was the cross how does it relate to you how do you respond to it what do you do with the Christ who has been crucified in your life that's all I've come to discover about who you are that's because that was the focused message of the church in the first century and it has got to be the focused mess of the church wherever it is actually doing the will of God to proclaim His goodness and His glory to the lost world and I will belabor that because as you have noticed just as we study a church in the first century that had lost its focus distracted by other messages we live in an age that you can find a particular message about God depending on which community of God you find yourself in the message seems to sometimes very let me say this from the message of the cross which we will take our time to consider this morning flow beautiful secondary and powerful messages from the cross flows the power of God loving the whole world that he would send his son to die in exchange for anyone who believes that flows from the cross and yet sometimes we find ourselves in our own hearts from the pursuit of God or in a Christian community be it a church or a sermon or a particular brand of following Christ that we like in a community that stands simply on the all-inclusive love of God and that is the message is God loves everyone come as you are and once you are here to hear the love of God that's all you need and so there is no requirement on the person who has he heard the message of God's love to respond to it with any life-changing power displayed in them because all they needed to hear was that God loved them that is a message that flows from the cross but incomplete if it isn't in the cross because the cross also says God so loved the world that He sent His Son that whoever believed in him would not perish which means the cross isn't just a display of the love of God it is also the answer for the wrath of God the wrath of God is what we all want to see happen whenever we brush shoulders with an injustice when we ourselves are offended someone sins against us we love to hear about this God who will set all things right and every sin will be dealt with and there are some communities or some seasons of your life when all you're concerned with is that the justice of God would reign supreme and you can come into a community that is all about the righteousness of God that flows from the cross but as if it is only the message that is incomplete because righteousness justice and love and mercy have to meet together in a way that this word says that is only displayed in the wisdom of God through the cross and sometimes we're pulled in the extremes that leave you with half of a gospel one of the verses that should be ringing in your ears right now as I've already quoted it is the message of God that is so clearly given as maybe the easiest way to sum it up in one verse it is John chapter 3 verse 16 if you've never heard it listen to what God is saying this morning about who you are and the value that he has for you it says for God so loved the world that's you that He gave His only begotten Son he exchanged the perfection of Jesus for you and on the cross of Christ your sin and your shame and you're just condemnation is dealt with by his son who knew no sin but became sin for you that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life now in this very this in capsulized version of the gospel we have the love of God the mercy of God the Justice of God the wrath of God all in one and where does it come from where is the flow of John chapter coming from how does the scripture give us this magnum opus of salvation how many of us know John chapter 3 verse 14 we've all watched the football games and seen the signs in the crowd that say John love so no one would perish but what we forget and what we fail to properly do with the message of the Cross is to say where John comes from now we read john chapter verse 14 and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life do you see what Jesus is saying about the power of God's love offered to the whole world it comes from the cross what does Jesus saying about Moses in this serpent this is a reference to numbers chapter 21 it catches us up to the story of God's people he has removed them from slavery in Egypt by 10 plagues miraculous wonders parted the Red Sea put them on dry ground and now they are in the desert walking towards the promised land and if you're anything like the children of Israel or like me there are times in your life where God does something amazing and miraculous incredible to set you on dry land and then you say I'm not so sure about your plan God how are you gonna feed us how are you gonna give us water when are we gonna get there maybe we should have stayed where we were this is a representation of the fallen nature of man and woman and to respond to the complaining people who didn't want to trust God as their Savior it says in this story that serves as a living parable something that we'll come to a further understanding in Jesus says that God sent snakes into their camp venomous snakes start biting the people and they start dying and it is a picture of sin in our world as we question the wisdom and the goodness of God we turn ourselves over to the fallen world of sin and we begin to perish as we will talk about today and in this living parable we get a picture of the love of God and the mercy of God and a plan of salvation for God in this interesting moment where God says to Moses here's the answer for the snakes in the camp I want you to craft a bronze snake and I want you to hold it up and whoever looks at you holding this up will be saved the venom will no longer kill them and they will be spared of the plague of this camp what is going on what is going on is God of us a living parable of his plan for the whole world not just that moment of how we would be saved when we question God when we go about our own way and when sin plagues our life here is the hope to receive the love of God the Son of Man must be lifted up he must take on the venom of sin himself and your only hope is that you look on him and believe that is God chosen plan for salvation for your life and you accept that as a free gift and you are saved from sin as the as Moses lifted up the serpent so God has now lifted up his son the message of John flows from the cross of Christ it has to be the message of the church it has to be the message of your life that there is a God who sent his son to die to give me life and I want to live after that example for everyone to see the message is the cross the cross brings clarity now to the two conditions that exist as a dividing line where only God knows the hearts and the conditions of your mind of the world that we live in as we consider this letter we'll know that there are many things that will come up as disputes in the body of Christ but Paul says it's actually only two camps that you'll live in there are only two groups of people and it's all determined and how you respond to the message that was just preached on the cross look what he says again in verse 18 for the message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God and here we are today as I preach there are two responses to the cross and it happens to be completely dependent on the condition of your heart before God it says that there are two camps there are those who are perishing and the arrows are being saved and that is what makes up the world that we live in that gives clarity to the lens that we view the world through when we view the world we know that there are essentially two movements that every human life is on two movements that the community of people exist within the process at play or either you are in the perishing group or you are in the group that is being saved and how you respond to the cross gives you the answer as to which group that you are in and I don't have to spend a lot of time explaining to you what it means that we have an entire class of humanity that is in the group of perishing of course all of you do know that there is a day and time coming when your closest friends and family that remain will be at your funeral that is not something that requires a deep dive into theology all of us live in bodies that are wearing down there is a physical perishing to you that you understand it doesn't take rocket science to know that your life has a shelf life and we think it's about 80 years but the Bible says that can happen in a blink of an eye and what's more it doesn't also take a real deep dive into the researchers of the world that we live in to know that not only is your body perishing but the world itself seems to be going in the wrong direction I could preach this message on any given Sunday and find ample evidence within the news feeds that all of us pay attention to of another example for us to look at and not be surprised but say yes the world in fact is still declining spiraling away from not towards the good creation that God made us to live in the good creation that has been broken and is now spiraling towards perishing until God brings a new heavens and a new earth choose your own version of the news feed and you will be reminded that the world we live in is perishing and of course it isn't simply a physical perishing or a worldly perishing but the reality is that you were given a spark of divinity to know God made in his image that is slowly growing farther and farther and farther away from God there is a perishing state to the spirit of man perishing in a word could be considered this way if you are in the perishing state you are growing increasingly content with the state of our world you are growing increasingly numb to the spiraling downward fall of our world and you are growing increasingly content to being far from God you're losing your hunger to know your Creator you're going farther and farther and farther from what the psalmist says the longing and the depths of the soul like a deer pants for water I need God but the perishing group is following farther and farther and farther from the desire to know God and your groin content in it that is what it means to be perishing and the good news of course so grateful that some of you are here to hear this message God does not want you to perish God wants you to know that he has a plan to put an end to your perishing body the perishing state of our world and your perishing spirit says in 2nd Peter that God desires that none would perish but that all would come into repentance so perishing means you're going farther from God and one of the ways that will be so obvious even this morning is the way that you react to the message of God sending his son to take your place for sin and giving you his righteousness in a way that is mysterious and miraculous and wonderful for those who believe but for some of us we listen to that and it says this message is foolishness it doesn't make sense at all for those of you who believe have you ever felt the tension that comes up when you're describing to your non-believing friends what you believe in you know that tension that comes up when you say hey you should come to we're gonna be talking about the Lord coming Christmas is all about Jesus and he's the reason for the season you should come here about his virgin birth and they look at you and they think you really then you invite your friends into this Easter celebration newness of life is found because God sent his son in the tomb is empty he is resurrected and he's alive sitting at the right hand of the Father and he's coming again and the non-believer friend says to you really you really believe that now that is the message of the Cross falling on the dead ears of those who are perishing our message to the world is not supposed to be wrapped up in a shiny box that people cannot wait to open God meets people in his foolishness to overcome the best version of their wisdom do not be ashamed at the gospel of Christ it is the power to save it is a miracle that will defy the logic of the non believing world but now we come to the question that Paul asks that we must ask the perishing world what does Paul say for it is written I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring nothing to the understanding of the prudence where is the wise among you where is the scribe where is the disputer of this age has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world for since in the wisdom of God the world through wisdom did not know God it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe here's what Paul is saying you've heard the message there is a God that you will never be able to put into your head he's too Infinite and too glorious but he comes to you in the form of a bondservant to show you who he is you call it foolishness what's your plan you agree with me please agree with me that the world is perishing will you agree that after thousands of years of trying to figure out how to make a peace treaty that would stick and how to give human rights to everyone and how to get along across borders and have-have selfishness eradicated and enrich people making their balance in the world so that we could all just live in harmony after thousands of years of trying can we all agree that we're still no better off where's the wisdom of the world where is the plan for the perishing man who made will be made right and give newness of life so that we can survive the perishing state where are you the wisdom of the world and for those of you who in your own philosophy think okay nice message for those of you believe but I'm gonna stick with my plan what is your plan what will you do with the spiritual unraveling of your heart growing farther from God until your eventually death what will you do when you meet him face to face how do you approach God in the wisdom the very best philosophers of our age you take the academic pursuits and the politicians and the strategies and all of our greatest thinkers and you put them together and they show you the shrug of their hands because ther

Conclusion

We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.

Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.

Conclusion

We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.

Closing Prayer

Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.